1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a honeycomb unit, and a honeycomb structure having the honeycomb unit as a component member.
2. Discussion of the Background
Recently, particulates, such as soot, contained in exhaust gases that are discharged from internal combustion engines for vehicles such as a bus, a truck and the like, construction equipment and the like, have raised serious problems as contaminants harmful to the environment and the human body.
For this reason, various applications in which honeycomb structures, which are made from porous ceramics, are used as filters for capturing particulates in exhaust gases to purify the exhaust gases have been proposed.
Conventionally, as this kind of honeycomb structure, proposed is a gas purifying filter with a honeycomb structure having a large number of cells, each surrounded by a partition wall, where either one end of both ends of the cell is closed by a plug portion, wherein both the partition wall and the plug portion are porous bodies, and a relationship between the porosity of the partition wall, porosity of the plug portion, an average value of the thickness of the partition wall and an average value of the length of the plug portion satisfies a predetermined relationship (for example, see JP-A 2003-003823).
Further, materials known for the conventional honeycomb structure are materials such as silicon carbide and cordierite.
The contents of JP-A 2003-003823 are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.